Junior Team Tennis: A FUN Introduction to Play By Khrystsina Tryboi et's start from the beginning. Take yourself back to the starting point of your tennis journey. Close your eyes and imagine being a kid who can’t stay still and all you want to do is just have fun. Your parents bring you to a tennis court and you just love the amount of balls flying around and the fact that you can chase them all over the court. You spend most of your free time practicing, having fun and making new friends. You are in total bliss when you come to practice, except for the times when your coach moves you up to the next level and it feels like you are starting from the beginning again. Your equipment gets bigger, the playing field also expands with your play level, and
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the sport that was once so exhilarating, does not seem so fun anymore. But in your mind, all you want is to do is hit balls in a lowpressure environment and compete with friends, and just have a good time. Now that you remember what it’s like to be a young athlete, let’s change the subject to how we are introducing our kids to the competitive aspect of the sport. The USTA program has a clear path of gentle introduction to competitive play. However, most children are still experiencing immense stress and anxiety after their first competition. They are not prepared to face the opponent on the other side on their own. I am talking about children
who are under the age of 10-yearsold. They’ve just managed to get their grip on the racquets and tackle their techniques. That’s exactly what I want to talk about. What we have here is two kids on opposite sides of the net who are excited to play, but at the same time can’t combat their emotions. Excitement and nervousness happen simultaneously and as a result we have two motivated players who can’t execute their game. As a parent of two young athletes, an eight-year-old boy and a fiveyear-old girl, I know all too well the hurdles most tennis parents go through with their children’s competitive journey. We all know of the parents who push their kids to
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New York Tennis Magazine • January/February 2022 • NYTennisMag.com
